TELEVISION presenter Kate Garraway’s husband, Derek Draper, has lost his brave battle for survival almost four years after becoming seriously ill with Covid at the start of the pandemic.
The former lobbyist and political consultant, who became a psychotherapist during a colorful and controversial life, succumbed to a heart attack in December, it was announced today.
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Derek Draper lost his brave battle four years after contracting Covid
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Derek and Kate taken during their honeymoon
His efforts to recover and the devoted support of his family captured the heart of the nation after he contracted the virus in March 2020.
He continued to suffer from a serious case of prolonged covid, which initially kept him in the hospital for a year and from which he never recovered.
Kate announced the heartbreaking news in a touching Instagram post today.
She wrote: “I am saddened to tell you all that my dear husband Derek has passed away.
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“Derek was surrounded by his family in his final days, and I was by his side holding his hand during his last long hours and when he passed away.”
During an eventful 56-year life, Derek’s sense of fun and courage in taking risks led him to become embroiled in two high-profile political scandals and to be fired for phoning his radio station from a brothel’s hot tub.
Kate, 56, once said of him: “If things are going really smoothly, Derek will create chaos, just for fun.”
But Derek, who leaves behind children Darcey, 17, and Billy, 14, credited his wife with changing his life and calming him down after he said his wild side was a mask for his earlier depression.
– I haven’t been depressed for years, since shortly before I met Kate, who changed me for the better anyway – he said in 2006.
“Eventually I realized that for years I had been covering up my depression by overworking, drinking or womanizing…drinking, drugs and promiscuity were the toys, and inside, unbeknownst to me, a small childish part of me was in the driver’s seat. “
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In the 1990s he had a political career Credits: PA
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Derek, pictured in 1998. Credit: Times Media Ltd
Derek was born in Chorley, Lancs, and went to Southlands High School before going to Runshaw College in Leyland and then the University of Manchester.
While at university he became a student union communications officer and met Labor activist Charlotte Raven, now a writer, who went on to campaign successfully to have him expelled, before the pair later had a four-year relationship.
Political scandals
Derek began his political career in 1990, when he became constituency secretary for MP Nick Brown.
He left two years later to work as a researcher for former Labor Secretary Peter Mandelson.
In 1996 he became director of a lobbying firm called GPC Market Access, where he helped found the new Labor organization Progress.
During the late 1990s Derek also worked as political editor of the Modern Review, an occasional columnist for the Daily Express and a presenter on Talk Radio.
In 1998, he was caught up in a political scandal called ‘Lobbygate’.
He was filmed telling an undercover journalist, posing as a businessman, how he could sell access to government ministers.
Derek denied the allegations and accused The Observer newspaper of trying to frame him.
Derek left politics and got a master’s degree in psychology from the Wright Institute in California and a master’s degree in psychotherapy in England.
He became a member of the British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy, writing for various publications on the subject.
‘An Unlikely Couple’
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Kate and Derek married in 2005. Credit: pixel8000
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Kate said their relationship was slowly blossoming (pictured on their honeymoon) Credit: The Sun
It was in 2004, shortly after spending time in the Priory Clinic for depression, that Derek met Kate.
The pair met when their mutual friend, then GMTV political editor Gloria De Piero, organized a drinks event.
Derek said of the planned hookup: “I remember saying to Gloria, ‘Like I’d like to go out with someone on breakfast TV!’
“I believed the stereotype – a maintenance whore interested only in glitz and glamour.”
Kate thought he was “funny and clever” but said of their first meeting: “Derek came over thinking it was a date and I was incredibly cool ignoring him.
“He asked me out, but on the day of our date he called to say he had a conflict: he promised to serve wine at an amateur watercolor exhibition at his church.
“I really thought it was cheerleading. But I turned up and he was indeed serving wine to the faithful in a salmon sweater.”
Romance blossomed in the summer of 2005. Kate, then 38, became pregnant with their daughter Darcey by “a happy accident”.
They married in a lavish ceremony in London that September, followed by a glittering reception in Park Lane.
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They were married in a lavish ceremony in LondonCredit: The Sun
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Kate and Derek with their two children, Darcey, now 17, and Billy, 14 Credit: Splash News
During 2008, Derek returned to British politics as an unpaid adviser to Ray Collins, then General Secretary of the Labor Party, and set up a website called LabourList to discuss matters concerning the party.
But it wasn’t long before Derek was caught up in another political scandal, for which he eventually apologized.
News reports reveal that Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s special adviser Damian McBride sent an email to Derek discussing plans to set up a blog that would be used to publish false rumors about the private lives of prominent Conservatives and their spouses.
David Cameron, Nadine Dorries and George Osborne were among the targets.
Political blogger Paul Staines got wind of the smear plans, leading to apologies from McBride, Brown and Derek, who resigned as editors of LabourList in the wake of the scandal.
After that Derek – who wrote the books Blair’s 100 Days during his first stint in politics and self-help guide Life Support in 2009 – stepped back from the limelight.
He even revoked his membership of the Labor Party after 35 years in August 2019.
A broken heart in the family
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Kate with Derek and Anton Du Beke in 2007. Credit: Rex
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Derek supported Kate during her stint on I’m A Celebrity 2019 Credit: Mirrorpix
But Derek and his family’s world came crashing down when he became seriously ill with Covid.
They put him in an induced coma and it was 200 days before he was able to say the first word in the hospital, which was “pain”.
His illness disrupted plans for him and Kate to have a second wedding in August 2020.
Derek popped the question for the second time after an emotional reunion with Kate as she finished her stint in the Australian jungle on I’m A Celebrity 2019.
Kate said at the time: “He said very sweetly that looking at me in the jungle made him fall in love with me all over again.
“I don’t know why because I looked like death warmed me, honestly.
“When I started across the bridge, he came with my engagement ring in his pocket. I left it with him so it wouldn’t get damaged by fish guts and anything that might be thrown at me.
“He burst into tears, then got down on one knee right in front of the camera around the corner, proposed to us in front of our children Darcey and Billy and said ‘Let’s renew our wedding vows’.”
That happy moment seemed a distant memory during Derek’s first 13 agonizing months in hospital, and Kate was even prevented from seeing him during his third confinement.
In the end, there was some good news when it was finally decided that Derek could tentatively return home, even though he was still immobile and very ill.
Sharing her struggle, Kate released a documentary titled ‘Kate Garraway: Finding Derek’, which aired in March 2021.
She revealed how she made their home wheelchair accessible and installed a hospital bed in their living room.
The documentary shows the heartbreaking moment when Derek told Kate he couldn’t do it anymore.
In the September 2021 update, Kate said he still has round-the-clock care and sleeps 20 hours a day.
The virus caused brain damage, kidney failure and liver damage, and caused holes to form in his heart.
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In 2020, Derek spent 13 months in hospital and was put into a coma
In 2021, Kate filmed a second documentary called ‘Caring for Derek’.
The following March Derek went to Mexico for a clinical trial – but a month later Kate said he “can understand, sometimes he says strange words but he can’t express himself”.
There was a further setback when Derek contracted sepsis in the summer of 2022, leading to another “fight for life” hospital stay, and in October the severe infection returned.
In another blow in January 2023, Derek was injured when he slipped out of his wheelchair while returning home from the hospital in a taxi.
But in a break from the ordeal, Derek was able to join Kate at Windsor Castle in June this year when she received her MBE from Prince William for services to broadcasting, journalism and charity.
Derek also made it to the Elton John concert in April.
Speaking about the occasional moment when her spirits were lifted, whenever Derek managed to communicate in a whisper, Kate said: “Things like that really lift you up.
“But the next day is completely calm.”
However, just last month Kate was still upbeat, saying “we still hope it will improve but we don’t have a clear time frame for that”.
Earlier this month, she expressed hope that Derek would be home for the family Christmas. Tragically, that hope was cruelly extinguished.
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Derek’s family has been by his side since he got sick
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TV presenter Kate Garraway’s husband, Derek Draper, has died
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Kate made a heartwarming documentary about her husband’s health battleCredit: ITV
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Kate received an MBE in June with Derek by her sideCredit: AFP
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